History component for single page application

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are some implementations of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products for facilitating the presentation of a personalized user history component in a graphical user interface (GUI), where the history component identifies primary tabs and associated sub-tabs that have been recently accessed by the user. Upon selection of one of the primary tabs, information pertaining to data records associated with the selected primary tab is presented using a link that includes identifiers of the selected primary tab and associated sub-tabs. The link may be saved or shared, enabling the primary tab and associated sub-tabs to be accessed by the user or another user.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material,which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared network-based resources,applications, and information to computers and other devices uponrequest. In cloud computing environments, services can be provided byservers to users' computer systems via the Internet and wirelessnetworks rather than installing software locally on users' computersystems. A user can interact with database systems, social networkingsystems, email systems, and instant messaging systems, by way ofexample, in a cloud computing environment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedsystems, apparatus, methods and computer program products for leveragingand managing assessment environments in an assessment hub. Thesedrawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that may be madeby one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1 shows a system diagram of an example of a server system 100 forproviding a user interface including a history component, in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a user interface 200 in the form of agraphical user interface (GUI) presenting a history component, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a user interface 300 in the form of a GUIpresenting a history component having a hierarchical structure, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 4 shows an example user interface 400 in the form of a GUIsupporting the copying of a link to a clipboard, in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 5 shows an example user interface 500 in the form of a GUIpresenting a minimized history component, in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 6 shows an example user interface 600 in the form of a GUIpresenting a history component within the context of a console, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a method 700 for presenting a historycomponent, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 8A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 8B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 8A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 9A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 9B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program productsaccording to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that implementations may be practicedwithout some or all of these specific details. In other instances,certain operations have not been described in detail to avoidunnecessarily obscuring implementations. Other applications arepossible, such that the following examples should not be taken asdefinitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the operations of methodsshown and described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer operations than are indicated. In some implementations,operations described herein as separate operations may be combined.Conversely, what may be described herein as a single operation may beimplemented in multiple operations.

Various implementations of the disclosed systems, apparatus, methods,and computer program products are configured for providing a historycomponent within a graphical user interface (GUI). The history componentis user-specific and may be maintained across multiple sessions, whichmay be established via different browsers or computing devices. In someimplementations, the history component is specific to a particularapplication. For example, the history component may be maintained by anapplication such as Salesforce's Lightning Console application, which isconfigured to support access to organizational data.

In accordance with various implementations, an application maintains ahistory component that includes a history of data records that haverecently been accessed by the user during execution of the application.Data records may be accessed by a user via the selection of tabs andsub-tabs presented within a GUI. In some implementations, the historycomponent includes a hierarchical structure that identifies the tabs andsub-tabs that have been selected by the user during execution of theapplication. Example data records that may be accessed via tabs andsub-tabs include cases, accounts, opportunities, leads, contacts, andactivities.

In some implementations, the user can save a link to a tab by copyingthe link to a virtual clipboard. In some implementations, the user maytransmit the link to another user who has permission to access theorganizational data via the application. The link may be generated toinclude a hierarchy that identifies the tab and associated sub-tabs.When a user receives the link, the user may click on the link to accessthe tab and any associated sub-tabs.

By way of illustration, John is a customer support employee at anorganization, Pyramid Construction, Inc. John logs in to access aConsole, which enables employees of the organization to access andupdate data records. John accesses a particular case record, Case 10000,by selecting a corresponding tab from a Graphical User Interface (GUI).Upon accessing the case record, John may access further informationpertaining to the case via various sub-tabs. For example, the sub-tabsmay correspond to contact(s) associated with the case. The systempresents information pertaining to the case record associated with thetab using a link that includes a hierchical structure that identifiesthe tab and sub-tabs. As John clicks on tabs and sub-tabs presentedwithin the GUI, a first history component is updated and presented viaJohn's computing device. The first history component visually representstabs and sub-tabs recently accessed by John. The first history componentmay be stored using a hierarchical data structure, and the first historycomponent rendered via a display may similarly represent the tabs andsub-tabs via a hierarchical structure.

John decides to share the link with a co-worker, Jane. Jane receives thelink and accesses the case by clicking on the link. Jane may then clickon the sub-tabs to access information pertaining to the contactsassociated with the case. As Jane clicks on the tab and sub-tabs, asecond history component is updated and presented via Jane's computingdevice. The second history component visually represents tabs andsub-tabs recently accessed by Jane. The second history component may bestored using a hierarchical data structure, and may be rendered suchthat the tabs and sub-tabs recently accessed by Jane are visuallyrepresented by a corresponding hierarchical structure.

In some but not all implementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus,systems, and computer-readable storage media may be configured ordesigned for use in a multi-tenant database environment or system. Theterm “multi-tenant database system” can refer to those systems in whichvarious elements of hardware and software of a database system may beshared by one or more customers. For example, a given application servermay simultaneously process requests for a great number of customers, anda given database table may store rows of data corresponding to datarecords for a potentially much greater number of customers.

FIG. 1 shows a system diagram of an example of a server system 100 forproviding a user interface including a history component, in accordancewith some implementations. Server system 100 includes a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components that are in communicationwith each other. In the non-limiting example of FIG. 1 server system 100includes at least one server 120, which is communicatively coupled to atleast one content service database 116. Content service database 116 maybe internal to server system 100 or external to server system 100. Asshown in this example, server 120 may communicate with content servicedatabase 116 via a network 114. In accordance with variousimplementations, users 102 a, 102 b may access and/or update datarecords in content service database 116 via a GUI accessed via theirrespective client computing devices 124, 126. Updates to content servicedatabase 116 may include, for example, modifying data within a field ofa data record, deleting a data record, or generating a new data record.Content service database 116 may include at least one relationaldatabase and/or at least one non-relational database.

Each non-relational database can allow for storage and retrieval oflarge sets of data. A non-relational database can be a databaseimplemented in HBase or other non-relational database management system.This database can include one or more records for each of a plurality ofenterprises (also referred to as organizations, or tenants.) In someimplementations, the database can include one or more tables in whichone or more enterprises have records. In some implementations, methodsand applications are provided for the storage of data being captured inreal-time.

Each relational database can allow for storage and retrieval of sets ofdata. In some implementations, a relational database can store andmaintain records and data objects relating to cases, accounts,opportunities, leads, contacts, and/or activities. In someimplementations, each relational database can be searched and queried invarious ways by a user of system 100, providing for reports, graphs,data summaries, and other pieces of information.

Server 120 may communicate with other components of system 100. Thiscommunication may be facilitated through a combination of networks andinterfaces. Server 120 may handle and process data requests from clientcomputing devices 124, 126. Likewise, server 120 may return responses toclient computing devices 124, 126 after corresponding data requests havebeen processed. For example, in response to a data request, server 120may retrieve data from one or more databases. It may combine some or allof the data from different databases, and send the processed data to arequesting client computing device.

Users 102 a, 102 b can include different users corresponding to avariety of roles and/or permissions. Client systems 124, 126 may each bea computing device capable of communicating via one or more datanetworks with a server. Examples of client devices include a desktopcomputer or portable electronic device such as a smartphone, a tablet, alaptop, a wearable device such as Google Glass®, another opticalhead-mounted display (OHMD) device, a smart watch, etc. Each of clientdevices 124, 126 may include at least one browser in which applicationsmay be deployed.

An authorization service may be used to determine who can access,update, generate, or publish content. APIs can be used to access,modify, generate, or publish content. In some implementations, access tocontent or APIs can be restricted to an appropriate set of users.

In some implementations, a user may have a single authorizationidentity. In other implementations, a user may have two or moredifferent authorization identities. This can allow multiple modes ofaccess to content.

FIG. 2 shows an example user interface 200 in the form of a graphicaluser interface (GUI) 200 presenting a history component, in accordancewith some implementations. User interface 200 shows a history component202, which identifies tabs 204 that have recently been accessed by theuser. Tabs 204 may be presented in an order in which tabs 204 have beenaccessed (e.g., selected) by the user. In some implementations, tabs 204are presented within history component 202 in a top-down order, wheretabs at the top of the history component correspond to those that havemost recently been accessed. In this example, Acme tab 206 is the tabthat has most recently been accessed by the user.

In accordance with some implementations, history component 202 furtherindicates an action 208 that has been taken by the user in associationwith each tab 204. As shown in this example, action 208 may be indicatedby an icon that represents the action performed by the user inassociation with the corresponding tab 204. Actions may include, but arenot limited to, viewing a record corresponding to tab 204 and updating arecord corresponding to tab 204. Therefore, history component 202 mayindicate a tab most recently accessed by the user, as well as the actionthe user performed in relation to the tab.

FIG. 3 shows an example user interface 300 in the form of a GUIpresenting a history component having a hierarchical structure, inaccordance with some implementations. In some implementations, historycomponent 302 identifies primary tabs 304 that have recently beenselected by the user, as well as sub-tabs 306 that have recently beenselected by the user. After a primary tab is selected by the user, theprimary tab is added to history component 302. In this example, primarytab 00001003 is the most recently selected primary tab. After theprimary tab has been selected, the sub-tabs of primary tab that haverecently been selected by the user may be added to history component302. In this example, the user has selected sub-tabs Global Media andJon Amos, which correspond to contacts pertaining to primary tab00001003.

In some implementations, history component 302 presents tabs andsub-tabs via a hierarchical structure. In this example, sub-tabs 306 areindented from a corresponding primary tab 304 to visually distinguishsub-tabs 306 from primary tabs 304.

In some implementations, sub-tabs may be presented in an order thatindicates the sub-tabs that have been most recently accessed by theuser. In other implementations, sub-tabs may be presented in an ordersuch as alphabetical, numerical, or alpha-numerical.

In accordance with various implementations, the user may return to aparticular primary tab by clicking on the primary tab identifier withinhistory component 302. The user may similarly return to a particularsub-tab by clicking on the sub-tab identifier within history component302.

In some implementations, history component 302 presents a maximum numberof tabs including primary tabs and/or sub-tabs. When a new tab is addedto history component 302 and history component 302 already includes themaximum number of tabs, a least recently accessed tab or sub-tab may beremoved from history component 302.

FIG. 4 shows an example user interface 400 in the form of a GUIsupporting the copying of a link to a clipboard, in accordance with someimplementations. User interface 400 is presented within the context of aConsole that supports access to organizational data.

User interface 400 includes history component 302. In someimplementations, user elects to view history component 302 byinteracting with user interface object 402. In this example, the userhas recently selected primary tab 404 corresponding to case 00001003. Inresponse, the user is presented a record corresponding to case 00001003,as shown at 406. User then selects sub-tab 408 corresponding to contact,Jon Amos.

History component 302 is updated to include case 00001003 correspondingto primary tab 404, as shown at 410. In addition, history component 302is updated to include sub-tab 408 corresponding to contact, Jon Amos, asshown at 412. History component 302 may be updated after or in responseto the detection of a tab event such as a user selection of atab/sub-tab or user closure of a tab/sub-tab.

In some implementations, a user may share a link to a primary tab. Forexample, the user may share a link by copying the link from an addressbar of the browser. As another example, the user may share a link byselecting a share link option (not shown) from user interface 400. Theuser may choose to share the link via email, text message, or othermedium. Alternatively, the user may choose to share the link by postingthe link via a communication platform that is internal to theorganization.

In addition, a user may copy a link and add the link to a virtualclipboard maintained by the application. The user may copy the link bydirectly copying the link from an address bar or by selecting a copyoption (not shown) from user interface 400. Upon successfully copyingthe link, the user may be presented with a message confirming that thelink was copied, as shown at 414.

FIG. 5 shows an example user interface 500 in the form of a GUIpresenting a minimized history component, in accordance with someimplementations. In some implementations, the user may toggle userinterface object 402 to minimize the history component, as shown in FIG.5.

FIG. 6 shows an example user interface 600 in the form of a GUIpresenting a history component within the context of a console, inaccordance with some implementations. To view the history component 302that was minimized in user interface 500 of FIG. 5, the user may toggleuser interface object 402, which causes the history component 302 to bepresented within user interface 600.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a method 700 for presenting a historycomponent, in accordance with some implementations. A user of a clientdevice logs into a web site to access an application. During executionof the application, a graphical user interface (GUI) is provided fordisplay at a client device at 702. The GUI includes a history componentassociated with the user of the client device and with the application.In some implementations, the history component includes a hierarchicalstructure identifying a set of primary tabs recently accessed by theuser during execution of the application and identifying a set ofsub-tabs recently accessed by the user during execution of theapplication. Each sub-tab of the set of sub-tabs is identified withinthe hierarchical structure in association with a corresponding primarytab of the set of primary tabs. For example, an identifier of a sub-tabmay be indented with respect to an identifier of a corresponding primarytab of the set of primary tabs. Each sub-tab of the set of sub-tabs maybe associated with a corresponding set of data objects stored in atleast one database. Similarly, each tab of the set of primary tabs maybe associated with a corresponding set of data objects stored in atleast one database.

In some implementations, a plurality of primary tabs are displayed in autility bar of the GUI. An indication of a user selection of one of aplurality of primary tabs displayable in a utility bar of the GUI may bereceived and processed at 704.

Responsive to processing the indication of the user selection,information pertaining to one or more data objects associated with theselected primary tab may be provided using a link at 706, where theselected primary tab has one or more selectable sub-tabs associatedtherewith. In accordance with various implementations, the link includesan identifier of the selected primary tab and an identifier of each ofthe associated selectable sub-tabs of the selected primary tab. Inaddition, the link indicates a hierarchy of the selected primary tab andthe associated selectable sub-tabs.

The link may be generated prior to providing the information orresponsive to receiving the indication of the user selection (e.g., atthe time that the information is provided). Information associating thelink with the primary tab may be stored in at least one database.

In some implementations, the user may add a link corresponding to aselected primary tab to a clipboard in response to a user selection ofthe link. More particularly, an indication that the user has requestedthat the link be added to a virtual clipboard may be received.Responsive to receiving the indication that the user has requested thatthe link be added to a virtual clipboard, a virtual clipboard may begenerated or updated to include the link. The virtual clipboard may beprovided for display at the client device.

The history component of the GUI may be updated at 808 such that only asingle instance of the selected primary tab is included in the set ofprimary tabs presented within the history component. In addition, thehistory component of the GUI may be updated such that an indicator ofhow recent the selected primary tab was accessed is provided. Forexample, the order in which the primary tabs are identified within thehistory component may correspond to the recency with which the primarytabs have been selected by the user.

In accordance with various implementations, the history component of theGUI may be updated responsive to the detection of a particular event. Insome implementations, the event may include a tab event. Example tabevents include, but are not limited to, closure of the primary tab, theuser selection of the primary tab, closure of a sub-tab of the primarytab, or user selection of a sub-tab of the primary tab. In someimplementations, which actions trigger an event can be configurable.

In some implementations, a listener module may listen to detect tabevents during the execution of the application. Upon detecting a tabevent, the tab event may be broadcasted to one or more componentsconfigured to update the GUI. Therefore, a tab event may trigger theperformance of various operations.

The updating of the history component may include the “reorganization”of the tabs within the history component. For example, the recentlyselected primary tab may be added to the top of the list of tabs withinthe history component. In addition, a least recently selected primarytab may be removed from the history component, where the addition of arecently selected primary tab increases the total number of tabs orprimary tabs within the history component beyond a maximum threshold.

Sub-tabs associated with a particular primary tab may be listed withinthe history component in a sequential order based, at least on part, onat least one of: recency of access by the user during execution of theapplication, numerical order, alphabetical order, or alphanumeric order.In some implementations, a maximum number of sub-tabs identified withinthe history component, in relation to a primary tab, may be configured.

Some but not all of the techniques described or referenced herein areimplemented using or in conjunction with a social networking system.Social networking systems have become a popular way to facilitatecommunication among people, any of whom can be recognized as users of asocial networking system. One example of a social networking system isChatter®, provided by salesforce.com, inc. of San Francisco, Calif.salesforce.com, inc. is a provider of social networking services, CRMservices and other database management services, any of which can beaccessed and used in conjunction with the techniques disclosed herein insome implementations. In some but not all implementations, these variousservices can be provided in a cloud computing environment, for example,in the context of a multi-tenant database system. Thus, the disclosedtechniques can be implemented without having to install softwarelocally, that is, on computing devices of users interacting withservices available through the cloud. The term “multi-tenant databasesystem” generally refers to those systems in which various elements ofhardware and/or software of a database system may be shared by one ormore customers. For example, a given application server maysimultaneously process requests for a great number of customers, and agiven database table may store rows of data such as feed items for apotentially much greater number of customers.

In accordance with various implementations, a history component may bemaintained in association with a user profile. An example of a “userprofile” or “user's profile” is a database object or set of objectsconfigured to store and maintain data about a given user of a socialnetworking system and/or database system. The data can include generalinformation, such as name, title, phone number, a photo, a biographicalsummary, and a status, e.g., text describing what the user is currentlydoing. As mentioned below, the data can include social media messagescreated by other users. Where there are multiple tenants, a user istypically associated with a particular tenant. For example, a user couldbe a salesperson of a company, which is a tenant of the database systemthat provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity having fields withvalues and stored in database system. An example of a record is aninstance of a data object created by a user of the database service, forexample, in the form of a CRM record about a particular (actual orpotential) business relationship or project. The record can have a datastructure defined by the database service (a standard object) or definedby a user (custom object). For example, a record can be for a businesspartner or potential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor,distributor, etc.) of the user, and can include information describingan entire company, subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As anotherexample, a record can be a project that the user is working on, such asan opportunity (e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or aproject that the user is trying to get. In one implementation of amulti-tenant database system, each record for the tenants has a uniqueidentifier stored in a common table. A record has data fields that aredefined by the structure of the object (e.g., fields of certain datatypes and purposes). A record can also have custom fields defined by auser. A field can be another record or include links thereto, therebyproviding a parent-child relationship between the records.

A record can have a status, the update of which can be provided by anowner of the record or other users having suitable write accesspermissions to the record. The owner can be a single user, multipleusers, or a group.

Updates to a record, also referred to herein as changes to the record,are one type of information update that can occur. Examples of recordupdates include field changes in the record, updates to the status of arecord, as well as the creation of the record itself. Some records arepublicly accessible, such that any user can follow the record, whileother records are private, for which appropriate securityclearance/permissions are a prerequisite to a user obtaining access tothe record.

Information updates can include various types of updates, which may ormay not be linked with a particular record. For example, informationupdates can be social media messages submitted by a user or can beotherwise generated in response to user actions or in response toevents.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some implementations,the group may be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, orby membership.

Some non-limiting examples of systems, apparatus, and methods aredescribed below for implementing database systems and enterprise levelsocial networking systems in conjunction with the disclosed techniques.Such implementations can provide more efficient use of a databasesystem. For instance, a user of a database system may not easily knowwhen important information in the database has changed, e.g., about aproject or client. Such implementations can provide feed tracked updatesabout such changes and other events, thereby keeping users informed.

FIG. 8A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service exists and can be used in accordancewith some implementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12,network 14, database system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these componentsand/or may have other components instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

A user system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) or otherdata processing apparatus such as a machine or system used by a user toaccess a database system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can bea handheld and/or portable computing device such as a mobile phone, asmartphone, a laptop computer, or a tablet. Other examples of a usersystem include computing devices such as a work station and/or a networkof computing devices. As illustrated in FIG. 8A (and in more detail inFIG. 8B) user systems 12 might interact via a network 14 with anon-demand database service, which is implemented in the example of FIG.8A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to users who do not need tonecessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the databasesystem. Instead, the database system may be available for their use whenthe users need the database system, i.e., on the demand of the users.Some on-demand database services may store information from one or moretenants into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenantdatabase system (MTS). A database image may include one or more databaseobjects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 18 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 16 to run, such as the hardware and/orsoftware, e.g., the operating system. In some implementations,application platform 18 enables creation, managing and executing one ormore applications developed by the provider of the on-demand databaseservice, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems12, or third party application developers accessing the on-demanddatabase service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, when a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, the user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the Internet. The Internet will be usedin many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood thatthe networks that the present implementations might use are not solimited.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 8A, implements aweb-based CRM system. For example, in one implementation, system 16includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRMsoftware applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems 12 and to store to,and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpagecontent. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may bestored in the same physical database object in tenant data storage 22,however, tenant data typically is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant data storage 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logicallyseparate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not haveaccess to another tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared.In certain implementations, system 16 implements applications otherthan, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system 16 mayprovide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom)applications, including a CRM application. User (or third partydeveloper) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may besupported by the application platform 18, which manages creation,storage of the applications into one or more database objects andexecuting of the applications in a virtual machine in the process spaceof the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 8A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer”. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user input devices, suchas a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or thelike, for interacting with a GUI provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, OLED display, etc.) of thecomputing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications andother information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers.Thus, “display device” as used herein can refer to a display of acomputer system such as a monitor or touch-screen display, and can referto any computing device having display capabilities such as a desktopcomputer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, a television set-top box, orwearable device such Google Glass® or other human body-mounted displayapparatus. For example, the display device can be used to access dataand applications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto one type of computing device such as a system including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. Itshould also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 8B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 8A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 8B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 8B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 8B shows that user system12 may include processor system 12A, memory system 12B, input system12C, and output system 12D. FIG. 8B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG.8B also shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N), systemprocess space 52, tenant process spaces 54, tenant management processspace 60, tenant storage space 62, user storage 64, and applicationmetadata 66. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 8A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 8B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 8A)implemented as a set of application servers 50, an application platform18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Also shown issystem process space 52, including individual tenant process spaces 54and a tenant management process space 60. Each application server 50 maybe configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage spaces 62, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage space 62, user storage 64 and application metadata 66might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage64. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage space 62. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle® databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 54 managed by tenant management process 60 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 66for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 50 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 50 ₁might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 50 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 50 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 50 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 50 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 50. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 50 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 50. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 50. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 50, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 50. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 50 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may involvesending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 50 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word“entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and“table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 9A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations. A client machine located in the cloud 904,generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as describedherein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environmentvia one or more edge routers 908 and 912. A client machine can be any ofthe examples of user systems 12 described above. The edge routers maycommunicate with one or more core switches 920 and 924 via firewall 916.The core switches may communicate with a load balancer 928, which maydistribute server load over different pods, such as the pods 940 and944. The pods 940 and 944, which may each include one or more serversand/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and otheroperations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with thepods may be conducted via pod switches 932 and 936. Components of theon-demand database service environment may communicate with a databasestorage 956 via a database firewall 948 and a database switch 952.

As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 900 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.8A and 8B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 8A and8B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 904 is intended to refer to a data network or combination ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 904 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 908 and 912 route packetsbetween the cloud 904 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 900. The edge routers 908 and 912 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 908 and 912 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 916 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 900 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 916 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 900based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 916 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 920 and 924 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900. The core switches 920 and 924 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 920 and 924 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 940 and 944 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 9B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 940 and 944 maybe conducted via the pod switches 932 and 936. The pod switches 932 and936 may facilitate communication between the pods 940 and 944 and clientmachines located in the cloud 904, for example via core switches 920 and924. Also, the pod switches 932 and 936 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 940 and 944 and the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the load balancer 928 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 940 and 944. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 928 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 956 may beguarded by a database firewall 948. The database firewall 948 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 948 may protect thedatabase storage 956 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 948 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 948 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 948 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 956 maybe conducted via the database switch 952. The multi-tenant databasestorage 956 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 952 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 940 and944) to the correct components within the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the database storage 956 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase service may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. On-demand databaseservices are discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 9A and9B.

FIG. 9B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations. The pod 944 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand database service environment900. In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of serversand/or other systems. The pod 944 includes one or more content batchservers 964, content search servers 968, query servers 982, file servers986, access control system (ACS) servers 980, batch servers 984, and appservers 988. Also, the pod 944 includes database instances 990, quickfile systems (QFS) 992, and indexers 994. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 944 may be transmitted via the switch 936.

The content batch servers 964 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 964 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 968 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 968may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file servers 986 may manage requests for information stored in thefile storage 998. The file storage 998 may store information such asdocuments, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requestsfor information using the file servers 986, the image footprint on thedatabase may be reduced.

The query servers 982 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 982 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 988 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 996 located outside the pod.

The pod 944 may share a database instance 990 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 944 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 980 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 984 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers984 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers988, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 992 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 944. The QFS 992 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 968 and/or indexers994 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 996 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 982 may communicatewith the NFS 996 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 944. The NFS 996 may allow servers located in the pod 944 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 922 may betransmitted to the NFS 996 via the load balancer 928, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 996 may also communicatewith the QFS 992 to update the information stored on the NFS 996 and/orto provide information to the QFS 992 for use by servers located withinthe pod 944.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 990. The database instance 990 may transmit information to theQFS 992. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 944 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 994. Indexer 994 may provide an index of information availablein the database 990 and/or QFS 992. The index information may beprovided to file servers 986 and/or the QFS 992.

In some implementations, one or more application servers or otherservers described above with reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B include ahardware and/or software framework configurable to execute proceduresusing programs, routines, scripts, etc. Thus, in some implementations,one or more of application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N) of FIG. 8B can beconfigured to initiate performance of one or more of the operationsdescribed above by instructing another computing device to perform anoperation. In some implementations, one or more application servers 50₁-50 _(N) carry out, either partially or entirely, one or more of thedisclosed operations. In some implementations, app servers 988 of FIG.9B support the construction of applications provided by the on-demanddatabase service environment 900 via the pod 944. Thus, an app server988 may include a hardware and/or software framework configurable toexecute procedures to partially or entirely carry out or instructanother computing device to carry out one or more operations disclosedherein. In alternative implementations, two or more app servers 988 maycooperate to perform or cause performance of such operations. Any of thedatabases and other storage facilities described above with reference toFIGS. 7A, 7B, 8A and 8B can be configured to store lists, articles,documents, records, files, and other objects for implementing theoperations described above. For instance, lists of availablecommunication channels associated with share actions for sharing a typeof data item can be maintained in tenant data storage 22 and/or systemdata storage 24 of FIGS. 7A and 7B. By the same token, lists of defaultor designated channels for particular share actions can be maintained instorage 22 and/or storage 24. In some other implementations, rather thanstoring one or more lists, articles, documents, records, and/or files,the databases and other storage facilities described above can storepointers to the lists, articles, documents, records, and/or files, whichmay instead be stored in other repositories external to the systems andenvironments described above with reference to FIGS. 7A, 7B, 8A and 8B.

While some of the disclosed implementations may be described withreference to a system having an application server providing a front endfor an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the disclosed implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases nor deployment on application servers. Some implementationsmay be practiced using various database architectures such as ORACLE®,DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of theimplementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or computersoftware in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/or methodsare possible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the disclosed implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas flash memory, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD);magneto-optical media; and hardware devices specially configured tostore program instructions, such as read-only memory (ROM) devices andrandom access memory (RAM) devices. A computer-readable medium may beany combination of such storage devices.

Any of the operations and techniques described in this application maybe implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, object-oriented techniques. The software code may bestored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readablemedium. Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program codemay be packaged with a compatible device or provided separately fromother devices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readablemedium may reside on or within a single computing device or an entirecomputer system, and may be among other computer-readable media within asystem or network. A computer system or computing device may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a database systemimplemented using a server system, the database system configurable tocause: during execution of an application, providing a graphical userinterface (GUI) for display at a client device, the GUI including ahistory component associated with a user of the client device and withthe application, the history component including a hierarchicalstructure identifying a set of primary tabs recently accessed by theuser during execution of the application and identifying a set ofsub-tabs recently accessed by the user during execution of theapplication, each sub-tab of the set of sub-tabs being identified withinthe hierarchical structure in association with a corresponding primarytab of the set of primary tabs, each primary tab of the set of primarytabs and each sub-tab of the set of sub-tabs being associated with acorresponding one or more data objects stored in at least one database;processing an indication of a user selection of one of a plurality ofprimary tabs displayable in a utility bar of the GUI; responsive toprocessing the indication of the user selection, providing informationpertaining to one or more data objects associated with the selectedprimary tab using a link, the selected primary tab having an associatedone or more selectable sub-tabs, the link including an identifier of theselected primary tab and an identifier of each of the associated one ormore selectable sub-tabs of the selected primary tab, the linkindicating a hierarchy of the selected primary tab and the associatedone or more selectable sub-tabs; and updating the history component ofthe GUI such that only a single instance of the selected primary tab isincluded in the set of primary tabs, and an indicator of how recent theselected primary tab was accessed is provided.
 2. The system of claim 1,the database system further configurable to cause: generating the link;and storing, in the at least one database, information associating thelink with the one of the plurality of primary tabs.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, the database system further configurable to cause: processingan indication that the user has requested that the link be added to avirtual clipboard; responsive to processing the indication that the userhas requested that the link be added to a virtual clipboard, generatingor updating a virtual clipboard to include the link; and providing thevirtual clipboard for display at the client device.
 4. The system ofclaim 1, the database system further configurable to cause: listening totab events during the execution of the application in association withthe user; detecting a tab event during execution of the application;broadcasting the tab event to one or more components configured toupdate the GUI.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the tab event is aclosure of a primary tab, closure of a sub-tab, selection of a primarytab, or selection of a sub-tab.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein theset of primary tabs are listed in the history component in an orderindicating recency of access by the user during execution of theapplication.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein sub-tabs associated witha particular primary tab of the set of primary tabs are listed in asequential order based, at least on part, on at least one of: recency ofaccess by the user during execution of the application, numerical order,alphabetical order, or alphanumeric order.
 8. A computer program productcomprising computer-readable program code capable of being executed byone or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium, the program code comprising instructionsconfigurable to cause: during execution of an application, providing agraphical user interface (GUI) for display at a client device, the GUIincluding a history component associated with a user of the clientdevice and with the application, the history component including ahierarchical structure identifying a set of primary tabs recentlyaccessed by the user during execution of the application and identifyinga set of sub-tabs recently accessed by the user during execution of theapplication, each sub-tab of the set of sub-tabs being identified withinthe hierarchical structure in association with a corresponding primarytab of the set of primary tabs, each primary tab of the set of primarytabs and each sub-tab of the set of sub-tabs being associated with acorresponding one or more data objects stored in at least one database;processing an indication of a user selection of one of a plurality ofprimary tabs displayable in a utility bar of the GUI; responsive toprocessing the indication of the user selection, providing informationpertaining to one or more data objects associated with the selectedprimary tab using a link, the selected primary tab having an associatedone or more selectable sub-tabs, the link including an identifier of theselected primary tab and an identifier of each of the associated one ormore selectable sub-tabs of the selected primary tab, the linkindicating a hierarchy of the selected primary tab and the associatedone or more selectable sub-tabs; and updating the history component ofthe GUI such that only a single instance of the selected primary tab isincluded in the set of primary tabs, and an indicator of how recent theselected primary tab was accessed is provided.
 9. The computer programproduct of claim 8, the program code further comprising instructionsconfigurable to cause: generating the link; and storing, in the at leastone database, information associating the link with the one of theplurality of primary tabs.
 10. The computer program product of claim 8,the program code further comprising instructions configurable to cause:processing an indication that the user has requested that the link beadded to a virtual clipboard; responsive to processing the indicationthat the user has requested that the link be added to a virtualclipboard, generating or updating a virtual clipboard to include thelink; and providing the virtual clipboard for display at the clientdevice.
 11. The computer program product of claim 8, the program codefurther comprising instructions configurable to cause: listening to tabevents during the execution of the application in association with theuser; detecting a tab event during execution of the application;broadcasting the tab event to one or more components configured toupdate the GUI.
 12. The computer program product of claim 11, whereinthe tab event is a closure of a primary tab, closure of a sub-tab,selection of a primary tab, or selection of a sub-tab.
 13. The computerprogram product of claim 8, wherein the set of primary tabs are listedin the history component in an order indicating recency of access by theuser during execution of the application.
 14. A method, comprising:during execution of an application, causing display of a graphical userinterface (GUI) at a client device, the GUI including a historycomponent associated with a user of the client device and with theapplication, the history component including a hierarchical structureidentifying a set of primary tabs recently accessed by the user duringexecution of the application and identifying a set of sub-tabs recentlyaccessed by the user during execution of the application, each sub-tabof the set of sub-tabs being identified within the hierarchicalstructure in association with a corresponding primary tab of the set ofprimary tabs, each primary tab of the set of primary tabs and eachsub-tab of the set of sub-tabs being associated with a corresponding oneor more data objects stored in at least one database; processing anindication of a user selection of one of a plurality of primary tabsdisplayable in a utility bar of the GUI; responsive to processing theindication of the user selection, providing information pertaining toone or more data objects associated with the selected primary tab usinga link, the selected primary tab having an associated one or moreselectable sub-tabs, the link including an identifier of the selectedprimary tab and an identifier of each of the associated one or moreselectable sub-tabs of the selected primary tab, the link indicating ahierarchy of the selected primary tab and the associated one or moreselectable sub-tabs; and causing the history component of the GUI to beupdated such that only a single instance of the selected primary tab isincluded in the set of primary tabs, and an indicator of how recent theselected primary tab was accessed is provided.
 15. The method of claim14, further comprising: generating the link; and storing, in the atleast one database, information associating the link with the one of theplurality of primary tabs.
 16. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising: receiving an indication that the user has requested that thelink be added to a virtual clipboard; responsive to receiving theindication that the user has requested that the link be added to avirtual clipboard, generating or updating a virtual clipboard to includethe link; and providing the virtual clipboard for display at the clientdevice.
 17. The method of claim 14, further comprising: listening to tabevents during the execution of the application in association with theuser; detecting a tab event during execution of the application;broadcasting the tab event to one or more components configured toupdate the GUI.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the tab event is aclosure of a primary tab, closure of a sub-tab, selection of a primarytab, or selection of a sub-tab.
 19. The method of claim 14, wherein theset of primary tabs are listed in the history component in an orderindicating recency of access by the user during execution of theapplication.
 20. The method of claim 14, wherein sub-tabs associatedwith a particular primary tab of the set of primary tabs are listed in asequential order based, at least on part, on at least one of: recency ofaccess by the user during execution of the application, numerical order,alphabetical order, or alphanumeric order.